The Brain Tumor Segmentation (BraTS-METS) Challenge 2023: Brain Metastasis Segmentation on Pre-treatment MRI.

Clinical monitoring of metastatic disease to the brain can be a laborious and timeconsuming process, especially in cases involving multiple metastases when the assessment is performed manually. The Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology Brain Metastases (RANO-BM) guideline, which utilizes the unidimensional longest diameter, is commonly used in clinical and research settings to evaluate response to therapy in patients with brain metastases. However, accurate volumetric assessment of the lesion and surrounding peri-lesional edema holds significant importance in clinical decision-making and can greatly enhance outcome prediction. The unique challenge in performing segmentations of brain metastases lies in their common occurrence as small lesions. Detection and segmentation of lesions that are smaller than 10 mm in size has not demonstrated high accuracy in prior publications. The brain metastases challenge sets itself apart from previously conducted MICCAI challenges on glioma segmentation due to the significant variability in lesion size. Unlike gliomas, which tend to be larger on presentation scans, brain metastases exhibit a wide range of sizes and tend to include small lesions. We hope that the BraTS-METS dataset and challenge will advance the field of automated brain metastasis detection and segmentation.

Experimental investigation of the effect of landfill leachate on the mechanical and cracking behavior of polypropylene fiber-reinforced compacted clay liner.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of leachate on the geotechnical parameters and the cracking behavior of compacted clay liners (CCLs) containing different percentages of polypropylene fibers. Accordingly, 200 compacted clay samples were reinforced with different percentages of fiber contents (FC) (i.e., 0, 0.5, 0.75, and 1%) and prepared with water or leachate to conduct different laboratory tests. First, the physical properties of the clay were determined. Then, the shear strength parameters (i.e., cohesion and friction angle), unconfined compressive strength, and the hydraulic permeability were determined subjected to water or leachate. Notably, the cracking behavior was modeled using visual images of the samples. The leachate increased desiccation cracks in the natural soil from 0.425 to nearly 1.111%. However, the addition of 0.5% (in the case of water) and 1% (in the case of leachate) fiber to the soil reduced the surface desiccation cracks in clay liners to about 0.185 and 0.352%, respectively. In both water- or leachate-prepared samples, the addition of fibers significantly increased the cohesion and friction angle. The shear strengths of the unreinforced leachate-prepared samples were lower than those of the water-prepared samples. The shear strength and unconfined compressive strength of all specimens increased with increasing fiber percentage. The presence of fibers in all samples caused more ductile behavior. The required amount of energy to achieve the maximum strength in the samples increased with increasing FC. By increasing the percentage of fibers, the permeability of the natural soil and the leachate-prepared samples increased. However, the highest permeability was observed in the leachate-prepared samples containing 1% fibers of 8.3 × 10-10 m/s, which is less than 10-9 m/s (maximum allowable permeability for clay liners). Finally, the obtained results were satisfactorily confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis.

Application of the dynamic cone penetrometer test for determining the geotechnical characteristics of marl soils treated by lime.

Quantitative estimation of mechanical characteristics of soils and determination of their behavior using in-situ experiments have always been one of the main concerns of geotechnical engineers. So far, various methods have been introduced to achieve this goal, among which the Dynamic Cone Penetrometer (DCP) test has become more popular as one of the most accurate and efficient methods. Therefore, in this study, an attempt was made to examine the correlation between different soil parameters by performing DCP test along with a series of conventional tests including Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) and California Bearing Ratio (CBR) tests on marl soil samples containing 2, 5, 8% lime at 1, 7 and 15 curing days. Furthermore, since the subgrade reaction coefficient (Ks) is needed in the design of pavements and their underlying materials, Plate Load Test (PLT) was performed to determine Ks. The results showed that the addition of lime up to 5% increased UCS, CBR and Ks and decreased dynamic penetrometer index (DPI) of marl soil samples. Further addition of lime had a negative effect on the mechanical characteristics of the samples. Moreover, using the equations obtained from the correlations in this study, strength characteristics and subgrade reaction coefficient of the stabilized marl soil can be estimated by knowing the DPI of the samples. The results of this study showed that the use of the DCP test as a cheap and easy-to-use method can provide a comprehensive view of soil behavior in civil engineering projects with an acceptable coefficient of determination to geotechnical engineers.

Tongue structure in the long-eared hedgehog (Hemiechinus auritus): A scanning electron microscopic study.

The aim of this study was to investigate the dorsal surface of the long-eared hedgehog tongue using scanning electron microscopy. The tongue of the long-eared hedgehog is rectangular-shaped with an elongated body and a widened root and a marked deep median groove can be seen on its dorsal surface. A characteristic feature of the lingual root is presence of two huge laterally situated folds. These anatomical structures have never been described with regard to other small mammals studied so far. According to their anatomical appearances, the lingual papillae can be distinguished as filiform, conical, fungiform, circumvallate and foliate papillae. The filiform papillae covering the body of the tongue are longer and wider than those on its apex and have an apparent fork-like appearance. Fungiform papillae are evenly distributed on the dorsal surface of the apex and body of the tongue. The triangular area of the lingual root contains small caudally directed conical papillae with single processes. Foliate papillae are situated on both lateral surfaces of the lingual root medial to the huge lateral lingual folds as three large obliquely situated parallel folds. There are three circumvallate papillae, two of which are obliquely situated on both sides of the rostral part of the lingual root, while the third one is situated in the midline of the caudal part of the lingual root. The results show that the tongue structure of the long-eared hedgehog is more complex in comparison with other mammals which is related to its phylogeny and feeding habits.